Happy Birthday Natalie!!!

Today is our beautiful baby girls 1st birthday!!!! We have been so blessed to have such an amazing little girl in our lives. We love you so much Naddie.

Oh...We're on the way, Oh, we're on the way...

This may be my last internet connection for a week so I thought I might want to let everyone know that we are officially on VACATION!!!! We left on Thursday and went as far as Perry Oklahoma (just out of Oklahoma city) and spent the night there. Then, we hit the road this morning and are staying in Austin. So far with 2 long days of traveling, everything has been great. The kids have all 4 done incredibly well. We brought lot's of food to eat in the car so that we didn't have to stop so much. One thing that I will say is that Naddie sure does like HER bed. Sleeping in her car seat is not a real option for her. She has been very good though. We will leave here in the morning and meet the rest of my hubby's family in San Antonio and have 4 days at sea world and 1 day at Fiesta Texas (6 flags). We haven't seen his sisters and their kids in 2 years so we are more than excited!!! This is a vacation that has not only been planned for 2 years, but one that I need more than ever!!!! So, I will say hello when and if I can. In the meantime, I will be having the time of my life with my amazing husband and 4 incredible children!!! YAHOO!!!!!!!!!! Shamu, here we come!!!!!!

My beautiful baby girl!!!

Can I just say that I have such the beautiful little girl???

More tornado's

Well, we were hit with more tornado's last night. Sundays caused more local damage but it went so fast, you didn't have time to be scared. Yesterdays started at 5:00 at night and they came for hours. At one point, the wall cloud was directly over us and we were huddled in the laundry room. It was such a rough night. It is hard to be strong for the kids when I am so scared myself. I was a lot more scared last night. The kids and I prayed that angels would surround our home and keep us safe yet again. Once again, our Heavenly Father protected the children and I. I LOVE Omaha so much but these darn tornado's are something that I will definitely not miss. The saddest part of all, is that 4 young boy scouts were killed while attending a boy scout camp in a small Iowa town. My heart aches for their mothers and families. I cannot even begin to comprehend what those families are now having to go through. As a mother, I want to be able to wrap my arms around those moms who must now face life without their precious sons. PLEASE keep their families in your prayers. Our hearts and prayers are certainly with them. Hug your kids a little tighter tonight. We love you all and appreciate those prayers that or given on our behalf. These past few nights have shown me that prayers really are answered.

Holy Cow!!!!!

Okay so I haven't posted anything whatsoever about the tornado that hit here in Omaha on Sunday and after reading what I just read, and looking at the map, I now find it necessary.(Quick side note. We actually live in a suburb originally called Millard however it is "technically" Omaha as it was annexed into Omaha a few years back. Locals still call it Millard though) The National Weather Service just came out tonight and said that 2 tornado's touched down and joined together. One of the original tornado's came right through our neighborhood!!!! Sunday at church, everyone was talking about how different this storm was. The sirens did not go off until AFTER the twister hit. Nobody saw this storm coming. They say it literally just popped up. News rooms have been flooded with complaints that when Omaha residence turned on their televisions, there was no information. That was because nobody saw this coming. One news channel said on Monday that everything happened in just 4 short minutes. In that amount of time, we went from simply Heavy rain, to a severe thunderstorm warning, straight to a tornado warning in 4 minutes. Unbelievable.

Now, I knew there was damage as close as one street over (someone lost parts of their roof) and on my same street, someone lost their entire fence. And I will say, that when I woke up, I looked out my windows and I cannot explain how different it was. The rain was hitting our bedroom window so differently. The wind was blowing so hard, I couldn't tell what direction it was going and I couldn't see my back yard. I just saw rain and wind, and hail hitting my window. I immediately checked my weather radio to see if it was working because I couldn't imagine that no warnings or at least watches were being issued. ( a watch means that conditions are right but it may or may not happen and a warning means to take cover IMMEDIATELY). It went off and said a severe thunderstorm warning and so I went to check on the kids and looked out their windows. Same thing. I couldn't see anything because of the intense wind and rain. By the time I got back to my room, my radio was going off again saying a tornado warning. I hurry and woke Buddy up and we quickly got all 4 sleepy yet frightened children down to the basement.

Of course we are all right but when I say my prayers tonight, I will thank my Heavenly Father even more fervently for keeping us safe. Talk about a close call. The darn thing was right here!!!!

*Images used from http://www.ketv.com

Her Royal Highness

Her Royal Highness, Kimbo Hopkins, Graced us with her presence today. It was a lovely day indeed. She enjoyed royal cookies made by our chef, Count Oreo, and participated in page after page of royal coloring. The drawings were exquisite. We feel very blessed indeed to have such a magnificent and beautiful girl grace our home with her presence.

Fun in the Sun

Our neighbor bought a new water slide so the kids went down to try it out. If you click on the pictures, they will look even more amazing.

Scary Storms

Well, tonight we have been under a tornado watch and severe thunderstorm warning so I thought I would go and take some pictures of the clouds. I have always been baffled by the amazing formation of the clouds during these storms. Here are a few that I took.